Regular readers (who don't personally know me) might think I am 100% down on a lot of things. It just appears that way. I am just as quick to give out praise as to handing out the bricks.
Some people are working hard to make things better. These are individuals in and out of the IOC. It's not all bad coming out of Lausanne (or elsewhere.) We might not all agree at times but were are one in the brotherhood. OK I will be the first to admit that there are a few (emphasis on the few) that I don't want to be caught stuck in a foxhole with, but the overall experience has been good. The negatives I have learned from.
One of the things that I love to do is observe people---and the stupid mistakes they make. Case in point: Singapore 2005. Online reporter for major European radio station refers to me as "some woman from Atlanta." If that person had done their homework, they would have found I have a name. Fast forward six months later---there is a new reporter on the beat and Mr. Clueless is stuck in 5-day-a-week-local-radio-purgatory, having probably seen his last IOC Session for quite sometime, perhaps forever.
As I am writing this, I am listening to the positive speech of Barack Obama. He's a fine example of someone who can bring the negative to the forefront, but with a positive message of solution for those negatives.
I would like to see more of us on the Olympic beat do the same. I am as guilty as anyone of dishing out the negative, with no solution to back it up. We all are at times. I've even have a major regret about some rough questioning that happened in Singapore.
We all make mistakes-and in my next column I will discuss one of those-and proffer an apology in the process.
